Scott Morrison: ‘We’re a great country, people are going to get back to where they have to have their heads.’
Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

Scott Morrison has vowed to to make Australia “even greater”, but acknowledged the country was disgusted by the antics and self-interest of federal politicians.

On his second day in the job – and with the makeup of his cabinet still unclear – the new prime minister went on ABC’s radio’s Australia All Over program with Ian “Macca” McNamara to reiterate the drought currently crippling rural Australia would be a key priority for his government.

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“That’s really been the issue I really have to get on top of straight away,” he said.

On Monday, Morrison will join new drought coordinator Major General Stephen Day on a visit to drought-affected regions in Queensland on Monday to talk to people about what government intervention was needed.

“We’re doing that listening which is needed to then plan then act,” Morrison said. “We are rolling out a lot of things at the moment, but it’s got to be coordinated and get to where people need.”

Morrison met with Day and with deputy PM and Nationals leader Michael McCormack on Saturday in Canberra. He was due to spend Sunday meeting with officials in Canberra and finalising cabinet appointments.

“A lot of people would have been absolutely disgusted by it,” he said. Rapprochement will be one of his first tasks, saying he aimed to heal divisions within the party, and refocus the government on its agenda.

“We’re a great country, people are going to get back to where they have to have their heads, where they should have their heads.

“That’s where I’m gonna get their heads so we can get on and make this country even greater than it is now.”

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The makeup of the Morrison cabinet remains unclear.

There are some suggestions he will name his new frontbench on Sunday afternoon, but long-serving foreign minister Julie Bishop – who was a defeated candidate for the leadership – is said to be still considering whether she will continue in politics.

There was speculation she would announce she will go to the backbench and not contest the next election.

The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he will retire from politics having lost the leadership – “I believe former prime ministers are best out of the parliament” – but he has been opaque about the timing, insisting only it will be “not before too long”.

Already, there is speculation about candidates to run in his blue riband Liberal seat of Wentworth, including the sister of former prime minister (and Turnbull nemesis) Tony Abbott, Christine Foster, and independent New South Wales upper house member Alex Greenwich, who led the successful marriage equality campaign last year.

The Liberals would expect to hold Wentworth, but a byelection in the seat would imperil the government’s one-seat majority on the floor of the House of Representatives, potentially forcing the government into an early election.